Esteen Becomes Fourth Husky to Start at Free Safety This Season

PALO ALTO, California — Makell Esteen was not a new player for the University of Washington football team by any means, but on Saturday night at Stanford he became a starter for the first time — the fourth player to open at free safety this season.

Esteen, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound sophomore from Hawthorne, California, got the call because senior Asa Turner (3 starts) re-injured himself against Arizona State and couldn't go, junior Kamren Fabiculanan (3 starts) was injured and helped off the field against the Sun Devils and sophomore Vince Nunley (1 start) was unavailable for a non-football reason.

Esteen seemed to hold up under the greater responsibility, coming up with a pair of pass break-ups, including knocking away an end-zone throw intended for Stanford's notably talented wide receiver Elic Ayomanor in the second quarter.

"He was practicing all week with the ones," UW coach Kalen DeBoer said of Esteen, who has appeared in every game this season, and 17 in his career.

Turner and Fabiculanan are listed as day to day for the upcoming USC game, but they simply had no chance to play in the 42-33 victory over Stanford. The Huskies (8-0 overall, 5-0 Pac-12), in fact, were so short of back-row help they had to get creative and load up on personnel elsewhere.

"We had three linebackers out there playing at a time," DeBoer pointed out.

The Huskies went without senior defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa, who was in uniform for the Stanford game, but the coaching staff had no intention of playing him. He missed his second consecutive game with an injury that hasn't been specified.

"As the week went on, it felt at the end it was only in an emergency situation where he could give you a couple of snaps," DeBoer said of Letuligasenoa. "The risk of long-term health factored in a little bit."

Finally, junior wide receiver Jalen McMillan, as he did against Oregon, played a couple of series and determined he couldn't continue with a injured knee that's still not quite right.

McMillan has appeared in only two full games over the UW's eight outings so far, with this season slipping away from him, though he's hardly raising a white flag.

"It's small tweaks, trying to get over the hump," DeBoer said. "He has a crazy, positive attitude to get out there and help us. He was trying to will himself to get on the football field."

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